Holy Innocents' Basketball Squads Split Wins at Wesleyan

Tuesday night at Wesleyan was a case of good news-bad news for Holy Innocents’ hoops, as Coach Tony Watkins’ girls avenged an earlier season loss in winning 57-54 while the boys came out on the short end of a 61-60 overtime score.

Starting with the girls, it was almost the opposite of the first meeting when HI led by nine in the final stanza and couldn’t hold on. This time the Bears got 10 points in the period from Shai Blanding (she ended with 11) in finishing the deal.

“This was another very even game and this time we were able to close it out,” Watkins said. “We played a good second half.”

His troops were down 23-15 at half – Watkins’ bunch started the game strong but were outscored 15-0 at one stage in the second quarter. “We had a bad quarter but we didn’t get flustered,” Watkins added. “That was important.”

A big highlight came from senior Erika Cassell. Finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds, the NC State signee pulled her 1,000th career board in the contest.

Besides Cassell and Blanding’s point production, Kaila Hubbard scored 14, Khayla Pointer nine; Kennedy Suttle seven and Aaliyah Milord had two.

For the boys, Coach Terry Kelly continued to work his coaching magic despite having two inside players – Brent Duncan and Richard Surdykowski – out with injuries.

“The issues of poor free throw shooting and turnovers continue to plaque us,” Kelly summarized. “We have to get better at taking care of the ball. They put a zone on us and dared us to shoot while doubling inside on Jules (Erving). Luckily, we had shooters surrounding him which kept the game within striking distance.”

Looking at the stats, Cole Smith led with 18 points; Erving added 14 and Harrison Cobb 11. Ibrahim Shabazz totaled nine and Hugh Chapman and Matt Meadows added three each.

On the boards, Erving had seven, Smith four and Cobb three.

“Cole, again, was stellar at both ends of the court,” Kelly added. “We asked him to guard their best perimeter player and be a scorer for us – that’s difficult for any player. Still, he does it well – we are witnessing an emerging star.“Overall this was a good high school game for both teams.”

Kelly’s bunch hit a season high of nine threes during the contest.

The Bears return home this weekend for more conference action – Friday the Bears will host Kipp and Saturday Lovett. The Lovett girls and boys games will be webcast live.